Maps Change Voters' Picture

Retuned Election Districts Will Plug Gop Into Power Zones

In January, a majority of Volusia County Council members were dreaming of Tallahassee, four of seven strongly considering a run for a state House or state Senate seat.

In April, only one remains. The other three fell victim to the once-a-decade redistricting process, a change in the state's political districts done to account for population growth and shifts.

The Republican-controlled state Legislature signed off on plans to redraw the state's House, Senate and U.S. congressional districts in the closing hours of the regular session last month.

In Volusia, a left-leaning county that swung for Al Gore in the 2000 election, local Democrats weren't expecting the GOP leadership in Tallahassee to do them any favors. Their predictions, they now complain, were on target.

As in other Democratic-tilting parts of Florida, mapmakers created House and Senate districts more likely to elect Republicans in Volusia County by packing many Democratic voters into one district, then dividing up the remainder into GOP strongholds.

"They should live with it," said Volusia County Republican Executive Committee Chairman Candy Gilman of her Democratic foes' complaints.

"I would have been disappointed if [redistricting leaders] had not looked out for us."

Though the plans must pass legal challenges and court reviews this summer -- something that is far from certain -- they are already beginning to bring this fall's elections into sharper focus.

GOP-FRIENDLY DISTRICTS

The number of House districts coming into the county -- six -- has not changed. Nor has the number of districts -- three -- that are likely to elect a candidate from Volusia because that is where most of the voters live.

Mapmakers changed her district -- which used to stretch northwest through Lake and Flagler counties -- to one that takes in many of the black neighborhoods in DeLand. Now, 58 percent of the voters in her district picked Gore in 2000.

Cusack is convinced the seat will send her back to Tallahassee this fall. County Council member Joe Jaynes was considering a run for the House, but ended up in the first-term Democrat's district.

"There's no way I'm mounting a campaign against Cusack," he said.

Still, she is displeased. What helped her has hurt the party overall, she said, because the changes allowed Republicans to make the other two House districts more GOP-friendly.

"That wasn't done for me," she said.

"That was done to spite me."

They made the beachside district held by Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, D-New Smyrna Beach, slightly more Republican.

The biggest changes were made to the seat currently held by long-serving Rep. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, who faces term limits this year.

With Lynn out of the picture, Democrats were hoping to win back the Democrat-leaning district, since 59 percent of its voters picked Al Gore in the 2000 elections. They're putting up Andrew Spar, a music teacher with no elected experience who lost to Lynn two years ago.

Enter Patterson, who still maintains friendships in Tallahassee.

Lynn's district was washed out of Democrats and extended to DeLand to take in Patterson's house. The once solidly Democratic district now has more people who voted for George W. Bush than those who chose Gore.

"Someone called me up and said, `It looks like you were conveniently put into District 26,' " Patterson said.

"I said, `I'm flattered you think I have that much power in Tallahassee.' "

HISPANICS DON'T GAIN CLOUT

The changes to Cusack's district also allowed Republicans to tighten their grip on the House districts that come into the county -- most notably the growing southwestern cities of DeBary, Deltona and Orange City.

Local leaders had hoped Deltona -- now the county's largest city -- and its large Hispanic contingent would gain more clout after the new maps were approved. That did not happen.

Southwest Volusia has been split up much like post-World War II Berlin, with four House districts coming in from all directions.

All four tilt Republican, and Democrats say partisan politics is to blame.

"There's not enough to give any candidate from the area a chance of winning," Bailey said.

CUTTING OUT OPPOSITION

In January, Deltona's best hope for representation in Tallahassee seemed to lie with Democrat and at-large County Council member Pat Northey, who was weighing a run for the Senate seat being vacated by term-limited Sen. Locke Burt, R-Ormond Beach.

Despite electing Burt, the seat has tilted Democratic.

With Burt out the door and mounting a campaign for state attorney general, Northey and east-side County Council member Frank Bruno -- another Democrat -- were both thinking of running for his seat.

Lynn announced last year she wanted to replace Burt.

GOP mapmakers transformed the seat into one that is solidly Republican, cutting both Northey and Bruno out of the picture in the process.

East-side County Council member Jim Ward is the only one of the original four to emerge from redistricting without his Tallahassee dreams dashed.

That is due in part, observers said, to the fact that Ward actively lobbied in Tallahassee this session and paints himself as a conservative Democrat.

He plans to challenge Lynn in Burt's old Senate district, which conveniently includes his Port Orange base, a town where he once served as mayor. He promises a fight.